Works for me... (ActivePerl 5.8.2):

use strict;
use warnings;

my %match = (
  'A' => '1',
  'B' => '5',
  'C' => '9',
  'D' => '8',
  'E' => '2',
);

foreach my $k (sort { $match{$a} <=> $match{$b} } keys %match) {
    print "$k - $match{$k}\n";
}

foreach my $word(sort byval keys %match)
{
    print "$word - $match{$word}\n";
}

sub byval
{
    return $match{$b} <=> $match{$a};
}
[download]

And the output -

A - 1
E - 2
B - 5
D - 8
C - 9

C - 9
D - 8
B - 5
E - 2
A - 1
[download]

Can you show us more of your code because I believe the problem is related to something else in your code.